The Trip Down

We're Here!

Finally after a long two day adventure, we rolled into San Diego. I was sincerely hoping for a nice and uneventful trip down and it almost was.

Diana came over to the house after she got off of work on Wednesday night. Bob and I packed up the truck with what would fit (we were bringing a lot of stuff to S.D.) and we left the city limits of Bend at 8pm.

The plan was to drive all night and end up at our friend's house, Marc and Terrie (parents of the lovely, Maxine). I started the first shift of driving since I was freshly caffeinated and had a good sugar buzz going too. We made it as far as two hours out of Bend when Mr. Logan decided that he was hungry. I have no idea where I pulled over at, the sign said something about a sno park, but it seemed a safe enough spot to nurse for fifteen minutes. When I pulled off the road I noticed another car sitting amongst the trees and I assumed they were camping. I left the car running and the lights on while I topped Logan off. As Diana was buckling him back into his car seat I was blinded by the colorful lights of a police car. In the total darkness all I could see was lights and I heard a disimbodied voice telling me to get out of my car and to stand next to the police cruiser. As I am standing next to the cruiser the police man comes over and asks me if I am the one that called the rangers office and said that someone was trying to kill me. What! Uh, no sir. I was just feeding the baby and I thought this was a safe spot to do it. I told him about the car that was there when we pulled in, which was now missing, and got back on the road as quickly as possible.

We drove on for hours while I sipped my Diet Coke and listened to some music quietly so that Bob and Diana could catch a few winks for their turn at the wheel. When we got into Redding at 2am I was ready to hand the wheel over to Bob and catch a few winks of sleep. We gased the car up and then headed to the 24 hr Walgreens to get some water. It was there that Bob noticed the temp gauge on the car creeping towards hot. He shut down the engine and looked under the car. Sure enough, there was coolent leaking all over the ground. The dealer in Bend which replaced our water pump did a bad job of reattaching the hose and it wasn't keeping a tight seal. So, Bob found a 24hr WalMart and he went in to get the tools he needed to do a patch job (have I mentioned how Bob makes McGuiver look like an amateur?) and he eventually got the car patched up. It took some time, some burns on Bob's arms and Diana's trusty flashlight - but we were on the road after a few hour layover with Bob at the wheel.

At around 4:30am Bob lost his momentum and I took the wheel again. With Diana's assistance as navigator, we pulled into Marc & Terrie's house after a long and windy tour through Napa Valley (we took the long way by mistake) at 8am. Marc was so excited to have Bob there and take him to his dirt bike course. So, after a quick breakfast Bob donned his riding gear and took off to ride dirt bikes all day. Diana took the air mattress which they had set up for us in their office and had a nice snooze. Alexis & Logan had the best time wandering around their house and playing with Maxine's toys. Maxine wasn't too thrilled with this, but she did an excellent job of playing. It was so nice to finally get to meet Maxine and do some catching up with Terrie. We even went blackberry picking and found that Alexis can eat an entire bowl of them!

When the kids took their naps, I crashed with them. I was seriously beat. After dinner, we all loaded the Durango back up and we headed out at 8pm again. Let me just say this again - thank you so much Marc and Terrie for taking the day off of work and hanging out with us while we blew through town.

The next leg of our drive was brutal! We were all still tired from the first leg. Bob took the first shift and drove until 1am. I drove until 3am. Diana got to drive the Grapevine (lucky her) and she took the wheel until 5:30am. When we hit Pasadena I took the wheel and we got to Vista at 8am to drop Diana off. We hung out for a little bit so that Logan and Alexis could say hello as well as stretch our legs. We pulled up to my Mom's house at 9:30am.

When we drive to Utah, I am thinking that I would prefer to drive during the day. This overnight stuff is a killer!